CELTIC have been dealt a major injury blow ahead of the Premier Sports Cup final with Kyogo Furuhashi limping out of tonight’s Europa League clash against Real Betis. 

The Japanese international replaced Albian Ajeti after just 30 minutes and it was a risk for manager Ange Postecoglou with a huge run of games coming up. 

Kyogo went down clutching his hamstring and was replaced by Ewan Henderson, who later got on the scoresheet with his first touch. 

The injury news will be a bitter blow to Postecoglou who is already without Jota for the cup final. 

The 22-year-old on-loan Benfica attacker has been one of the Hoops’ top performers this season with eight goals so far but pulled up with a hamstring injury against Hearts last week which caused him to miss the match against Dundee United on Sunday. 

Ahead of the Europa League dead rubber against Real Betis at Parkhead, Postecoglou, who originally stated that Jota would be out for a “few weeks”, revealed he is out for the showpiece occasion at Hampden Park on December 19. 

The Hoops boss said: “He won’t be right for the cup final, a few weeks means a few weeks. How long that stretches out for we’ll wait and see but he definitely won’t be right for the cup final. 

“I said it was going to be three to four weeks recovery depending how he goes so, if you look at timelines, it gets pretty tight for between now and the break. We will just have to see how he recovers.”